I had a listen to this Rain Tree Sketch II recording. I haven't heard it before and I agree with your estimation, it sounds quite meditative and a heavy and hot atmosphere. I was listening to Pierrot Lunaire by Schoenberg this morning for a listening quiz and the wild melodies in it I was reminded of when I heard this. I can't think of anything to criticize, your phrasing sounded nice.

~Riley

_________________"I don't know what music is, but I know it when I hear it." - Alan SchuylerRiley Tucker

This could be 'rain' music and also 'space' music. Mostly dissonances but it's not too 'in your face' so I kinda like it. Sounds like you played it nicely and the high notes on your piano sound good here.

_________________"Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties." ~ Frederic Chopin

Thanks Riley and Monica.This is a good piece to get used to contemporary music. Full of dissonance, but beautifully so. There's one bar here which did not really come off as it should, being quite awkward, so maybe I will need to have another dig at this one.

This is a first hearing for me, but I believe this is a beautiful and very evocative composition. I believe that you play it most effectively and convincingly. These days it's scary that I no longer have to "stretch my ears" to listen to modern music.

David

_________________"Interpreting music means exploring the promise of the potential of possibilities." David April

Hi Chris,that´s a piece with an interesting and contemplative harmonic atmosphere. I couldn´t find the score of it so I can not judge how you play it, but I can imagine, that most of it will be right here. It sounds expressively and subtle played to me. Continue with playing contemporary music! I like that.

This is a first hearing for me, but I believe this is a beautiful and very evocative composition. I believe that you play it most effectively and convincingly. These days it's scary that I no longer have to "stretch my ears" to listen to modern music.

Ear stretching is such a gradual process - almost imperceptible if you tread carefully through the repertoire. I well remember a time that I found Bartok, Prokofiev and Stravinsky much too modern to listen to. As for Takemitsu, he was mostly self-taught and though he was much influenced by Debussy and Messiaen he was his own man and did not strive to be modern for the sake of it.

musicusblau wrote:

that´s a piece with an interesting and contemplative harmonic atmosphere. I couldn´t find the score of it so I can not judge how you play it, but I can imagine, that most of it will be right here. It sounds expressively and subtle played to me. Continue with playing contemporary music! I like that.

Yes, most of it is right here Except for one very awkward bar where I dropped some notes (but I've heard that happen in other performances too).Sure, I'll keep eyes and ears open for more contemporary music (as long as it sounds nice and is not hellishly difficult).

An elegant piece it certainly is, but also one with great depths of beauty and expression. An eye-opener (ear-opener?) for those who think contemporary music can't be beautiful, and that nothing nice was written since Rachmaninov.

Chis,I agree with your opinion of the work and I salute your fine performance of it. I have not heard this work, or don't remember it. It is a beautiful piece in the style of -- for lack of a better term -- oriental impressionism. In harmonic language it seems a mix of pentatonic and atonal. Very little whole-tone that I could detect. Thanks for the offering!Eddy

_________________Eddy M. del Rio, MD"A smattering will not do. They must know all the keys, major and minor, and they must literally 'know them backwards.'" - Josef Lhevinne

Thanks Eddy.Like many 'contemporary' composers, Takemitsu started out being quite radical and avant-garde, and later mellowed towards a more personal and traditional style. Being a pacifist, he loathed Japan's militaristic history culminating in WW II, and it took him a very long time to get to grips with the native music of his country. I'm glad he did eventually. I find even his dissonants intensely beautiful.

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